The Lucyan Group, Luca Donini - Orient-Jazz (2013)

Tracklist

01. Shakti (feat. Luca Donini)
02. Morning Gymnastics (feat. Luca Donini)
03. Dominika-San (feat. Luca Donini)
04. Kirtan Raga (feat. Luca Donini)
05. Kalidesh (feat. Luca Donini)
06. Flight of the Camel (feat. Luca Donini)
07. Tamil Song (feat. Luca Donini)
08. Oriental Swing (feat. Luca Donini)
09. Japanese Song (feat. Luca Donini)
10. Song of Rocks (feat. Luca Donini)
11. Indian Song (feat. Luca Donini)

"The Lucyan Group" it is the name of a Polish musical group, founded by Polish multi-instrumentalist and composer Lucjan Weso?owski (performing under the artistic pseudonym “Lucyan). The group has been founded in the 2009 and plays mostly the music composed by the leader, inspired by the Oriental and Balkan folk music. In the repertoire there are also Indian , Tibetan and Japanese songs.

The CD "Orient-jazz" has been recorded by thsi band with helping of a few musicians. They are 2 saxophone-players: Luca Donini (Italy) and Sagit Zilberman (Israel), clarinet-player Miroslaw Klepaczka (Poland), violin-player Piotr Przybyl and Julian Wesolowski (nephew of leader) who recorded djembe and synthesizer in 2 songs.

Orient-jazz is a term coined by Lucyan, who, with this term, defines the music composed by him, as being a combination of elements of jazz and Oriental music. Since the early 80's, he has been composing tracks that structurally and rhythmically derive from jazz, but are close to Oriental music in their melodic harmonies. The scales being utilized by Lucyan originate from different traditions, such as Indian, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, etc. His compositions are generally built in a similar manner to jazz songs; the rhythmical sphere makes reference to Oriental music, especially to that of India. The harmonic spaces are very diversified – at one time, they resemble Oriental tracks where European-style harmony is practically non-existent; at another, such as in the track called “Morning Gymnastics”, they are constructed in a fashion typical of Western culture, tending towards jazz through the use of multisonic chords.
Improvisations are performed using the scale of a given theme, or scales remaining very close to that scale. Phrasing, depending on his musicians' individual preferences, alludes more or less to jazz phrasing.

1986 in Poland was the year of the release of the magnetic cassette “The Orientation to the Orient - part 1”, which includes tracks in this genre only. Apart from Lucyan's compositions, the cassette also includes 2 tracks composed by Bohdan Lizon', both in a similar style. The whole of the Orient-jazz songs were mostly performed by the band called “The Orientation to the Orient”, which had been founded by Lucyan in 1983. Its line-up was made up of jazz musicians, such as saxophonist Wojciech Staroniewicz, violinist Krzysztof Maciejowski or bass guitarist Tomasz Ga;ssowski. For many years, the pillar of the band was flutist Stefan B?aszczyn'ski. Lucyan's Orient-jazz compositions were also performed by his Italian band “The Lucyan Group”, active in the years 1994-1997 and 2002-2004. Currently, these songs constitute the repertoire of his Polish formation that has been in existence since December 2009, and continues the artistic work under the same name as “The Lucyan Group”.
Lately this music is played also by new Lucyan’s groups: “Verso Oriente” (Italy) and “The Orient-Jazz Duo” (Poland).

DOWNLOAD ALBUM [flac]